Name of Church St. John the Baptist
Address 1015 Baker Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Phone number 714-540-2214
Website https://www.stjohnthebaptistcostamesa.org/
Mass times Saturday: 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (vigil), 6:30 p.m. (vigil in Vietnamese); Sunday 6:30 a.m. (Vietnamese), 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. (Latin Tridentine), 2:15 (Spanish), 5 p.m. Monday-Friday: 6:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m. & 5:30 p.m. 1st Fridays, 7 p.m. (Vietnamese).
Confessions Monday – Wednesday, 7:30 – 9 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. (following the 8 a.m. Mass)
Names of priests Staffed by the Norbertine priests of St. Michael’s Abbey: Father Pascal Nguyen, pastor. Fathers Godfrey Bushmaker, Andrew Tue Tran Tue, Fr. Brendan Hankins, parochial vicars. Father Damien Giap, school rector. (To learn about St. Michael’s Abbey, please visit https://stmichaelsabbey.com/.) St. Michael’s Abbey was established in 1961 by seven Hungarian priests who fled communism in their home country. The Hungarians are now long-deceased, but the community has flourished. Its priests are orthodox, pious and professional. Many of its priests celebrate Masses as visiting priests in parishes in the Diocese of Orange and the neighboring dioceses; St. John’s is staffed entirely by priests of the community. Additionally, there is a small community of Norbertine nuns who live on-site. Fr. Pascal was installed as pastor in a ceremony led by Orange Auxiliary Bishop Tim Freyer on February 26, 2023; the previous long-time pastor, Fr. Augustine Puchner, was sent to the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois to found a new community of Norbertines.
School Grades K-8.
Special events Check the website, as there are a variety of devotions, including rosaries in the three predominant languages spoken by parishioners, English, Spanish and Vietnamese. There is weekday exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 3 – 4:45 p.m. with benediction at 4:50 p.m. There is a perpetual adoration chapel in the front of the church (in a separate room behind the altar). Liturgy of the Hours includes Morning Prayer at 6 a.m. and Evening Prayer at 5 p.m.
Special parish groups Knights of Columbus, youth and young adult groups, Legion of Mary, Filipino-American Ministry, St. Vincent de Paul Society, Saint Dismas Brotherhood for men, SJB Moms, rosary-making group.
Liturgy/Music Organ, cantor, choirs. The Tridentine liturgy is sung (Latin Schola).
Fellow parishioners English, Spanish and Vietnamese-speaking communities. Most are from nearby, although a few drive from farther away in search of orthodoxy and/or the Latin Tridentine Mass.
Parking Ample parking beside the church. On especially crowded days, you can park across the street.
Acoustics Fine.
Cry room No, but the vestibule is separated by glass.
Additional observations St. John the Baptist is a parish of the Diocese of Orange, California. It is an ideal Catholic parish in many ways, with both excellent priests and a beautiful interior. The centerpiece of the interior is its beautiful retablo, or altar piece, depicting Christ’s baptism by St. John the Baptist. The previous pastor added a large Pieta statue to the right of the altar. Alongside the church is a beautiful shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, of special significance to the Vietnamese community. Frequently you’ll hear devotions going on in the church, and there is a lot of activity related to the neighboring parish school.
Why is a parochial church celebrating the TLM still and advertising it? I’m disappointed in Bishop Vann for allowing that. It’s not permissible, by order of the Holy See. There are plenty of non-parish churches, oratories and abbeys where the TLM can be celebrated until it is phased out, once the trads have been brought up to speed on the Vatican II liturgical program.
In Orange County the Trads are very wealthy. Bishop Vann knows the giving to his annual appeal would dry up if he clamped down on the TLM, and there are things he wants to raise money for. (It’s not the illegals in the county who are supporting the fund.) How do you think the Norbertines were able to raise over $100 million in a short time to build their new abbey? Money talks. Traditionis Custodes walks.
Additionally, Vann is close to retirement age and in deteriorating health. He’ll leave it for his successor to deal with.
I have never been to a TLM but I keep wondering why there are lay people who lather up at the mention of it, almost insisting on telling a bishop how to run his diocese. It is my rudimentary understanding that the TLM attracts many due to its reverence and its theological emphasis, and that those going feel they are better Catholics for the effort. As such I applaud the fact that this parish still offers it to meet the needs of the parishioners. May I assume that Bishop Vann is not ignorant of Pope Francis’ contempt for the TLM and will act accordingly in due time?
Would it be telling a bishop how to run his diocese if someone insisted he not give support to gay unions?
“Would it be telling a bishop how to run his diocese if someone insisted he not give support to gay unions?” To tell the bishop to support gay unions would require him to violate the Natural/Moral Law and 2000 years of Church history. To tell the bishop to support the TLM involves no violation of the Moral Law nor the Church’s tradition throughout history until this present moment under Pope Francis, whose intention it is to eliminate it from the liturgical landscape, something a future pope could easily undo. So there really is no comparison.
I guess you weren’t Catholic between 1970 and 1988.
You did not read Traditionis Custodes, did you? It did not ban parish celebrations of the TLM. It only said that it ought to be run through first by the Vatican. When you write about your vitriolic hatred of the Latin mass (which I’m not even that fond of, to be honest), is it done with charitable or with divisive motivation? What is it that you are trying to achieve?
You did not read the follow up dubia nor the rescript, both of which clarified that the TLM should not be celebrated in a territorial parish church. If a bishop thinks there is a need for the TLM to be celebrated in a parish, he must write to Rome for permission.
The bishop must also be working towards unification of the whole diocese in celebrating the liturgy using only the post Vatican II liturgical books. Continuing to celebrate the TLM, as if it will go on forever, as if the TLM is on par with the Novus Ordo.
So when is the TLM at St. John the Baptist scheduled to be transitioned into a Novus Ordo Mass? Are the people and priests there being educated and prepared for the transition to the post Vatican II Mass?
The ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass are two forms of the same rite.
Those terms are now obsolete. The Missal of Paul VI is the unique liturgical expression of the Roman Rite. The 1962 Missal is the former, now superseded, iteration of the Roman Rite; it has been superseded by the Missal of Paul VI. Use of the 1962 Missal is temporarily and restrictedly tolerated as a compassionate spiritual concession towards those few Catholics who are unduly attached to the TLM while the Church advances toward universal implementation and celebration of the Mass of Paul VI. Those who now celebrate the TLM will eventually be brought to celebrate the Novus Ordo.
Your are paraphrasing what has come from the Vatican and you are not being accurate.
I specifically reference the both the rescript and the responsa ad dubia when I write that the diocese need only write to the Holy See. To presume that such requests would be denied is to go even against the Magisterium of the Holy Church which recognizes the legitimacy of the Tridentine Rite and of groups such as the FSSP who retain the ability to celebrate according to the TLM (as decreed by Pope Francis himself after Traditionis Custodes on 21 February 2022). While the response to the dubia does note that the TLM should be removed from the schedule (and in this, I concede), no point is made in total prohibition of the parish’s participation in the TLM. Additionally, there is no prohibition of promotion or advertisement of the TLM once it arrives at a non-parochial place of worship.
As always, the Holy See has final word, and the Holy See has not yet warned Bp. Vann of anything. When they do, please let me know.
Look up the Ruthenian option , forcing the NO will not bring more people to the NO , btw the TLM is superior to the NO in form and reverence alone, a “reverent ” NO has to ape the TLM to appear reverent .
Let everyone be struck with fear, let the whole world tremble, and let the heavens exult
when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar
in the hands of a priest.
St Francis of Assisi
You admit they are the post-Vatican II books and not the actual Vatican II books. The Mass of Vatican II is the Mass the Council fathers celebrated and the 1965 ordo missae is the reformed liturgy. The Novus Ordo is indeed a post-Vatican II concoction of Bugnini and the Concilium. This distinction, properly understood, reveals the basic weakness of the whole enterprise – a manufactured, cut-n-paste pastiche with no actual connection to the organic reality of the Roman Rite. Eventually, the Novus Ordo will go the way of New Coke, because more and more Catholics want Mass Classic.
Every word, every gesture of the Catholic Mass is filled with meaning. Much that is said is the Word of God. One should stand in reverential awe at any Mass. It is Heaven on Earth.
Gosh, how wrong you are. Vatican II called for the Mass to be reformed. You think the new Mass has “no actual connection” to the Roman Rite?
Pope Francis also destroyed the Pontifical Academy for Life of Pope St. John Paul II, with the Abp. Paglia as its president. The PAL no longer supports Catholic Teaching, and recently put out a book that supports birth control and abortion. There is wrongful support in the current Vatican, among some top Church leaders, for gay sex relationships and gay marriage. Catholics have the right to the Tridentine Latin Mass.
That is not true. The teaching of the Church on birth control and the position of the PAL on birth control has not changed. The PAL does not support abortion, either.
No one at the Vatican supports gay sex relationships and gay marriage, publicly.
Catholics have a right to Mass, not TLM
No. Catholics do have a right to the ancient, holy Tridentine Latin Mass. There are top Vatican clerics who attest to thst. And yes, there are also, tragically, many top Vatican clerics today, that believe in or just support gay sex and gay “marriage.” Yes, the PAL has put out public statements, plus a controversial new book, “Theological Ethics of Life,” supporting contraception and abortion– in contradiction of Catholic teaching.
Please give your source. Vatican documents are usually numbered by paragraph or section for easy reference.
I have looked at the online content of “Theological Ethics of Life.” It does not support contraception and abortion. You are misrepresenting it.
Why tell these lies? Unless your goal is to weaken or harm the Church?
Do you know the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas?
Do you understand its structure?
Part of the problem is that scandal is addictive. They blow things out of proportion or they make headlines that mislead. When you actually hear the whole story, it is not as bad as it seems.
Not always. The new PAL, its members, many of whom do mot accept Catholic moral teaching– and their new book– are quite scandalous.
If you gossip.
“…until it is phased out”?
Never going to happen.
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2022/06/29/0501/01027.html#ing
Click on “traduzione in lingua inglese” to get to the English translation
Happy 95th Birthday in heaven to the late Father Hans Kung.
I think it is wonderful that they now have a Baptist Catholic church open! It will appeal to lots of people and I will definitely plan a visit there sometime next year.
A beautiful church. How lucky the parishioners are to have a parish with only Norbertine priests.
This seems like a good parish. They offer Mass in English, Spanish and Vietnamese and have (only) one Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Yet, it seems almost all the comments relate to the latter. I don’t understand the seeming obsession with the TLM. Surely, Bishop Vann is no right-wing disobedient schismatic. It seems he has a pastoral reason to allow the TLM to continue there; like people, including young families, attending Mass and being spiritually served and blessed. I have never served a TLM, but I do want to see people attend Mass (of any Form or Rite) and grow closer to Christ and His Church. And, it seems Norbertines have had permission to celebrate the TLM for a number of years. Didn’t liberals used to say “live and let live?”
I suspect that the Traditional Mass goers bother them so much because the TLM’s are producing more children the natural normal way, whereas those who hate the older mass want artificial contraception or artificial insemination or sodomous “marriages” to be given approval. Those people are not about to “live and let live”. Most Catholics I know that go to the ordinary masses who believe in the Church teaching on sexuality do not care if others want the TLM. It is the dissidents who absolutely hate it and do not want others to have it.